Back in the old days before we had any kind of cable, the only way to put on children's programming when there wasn't any on was to put in a tape. We'd pop in the home movies more often than not because they were more fun for us to watch. And my daughter loved watching herself on TV. Sometimes she was watching herself on TV watching TV. I don't think we filmed her watching herself on TV watching herself on TV watching TV, but we might have. (And knowing me, I probably did.)
My son on the other hand was 5 when we got Dish, so he knew that there was always something on. And by then, we had a videogame system, too.